Environmental law

This article is about an area of law. For the law review Environmental Law, see Environmental Law (Law
Review).

Environmental law
Pollution control and remediation
Air
Hazardous substances
Waste
Water
Resource conservation and management
Fisheries
Forests
Historic sites
Minerals
Oil and gas
Parks
Species
Water
Planning, land use, and infrastructure

Water, air and the byproducts of human activity do not respect political boundaries.
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and
common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and thenatural environment, toward the
purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity. The topic may be divided into two major subjects:
(1) pollution control and remediation,(2) resource conservation and management. Laws dealing with pollution
are often media-limited - i.e., pertain only to a single environmental medium, such as air, water (whether
surface water, groundwater or oceans), soil, etc. - and control both emissions of pollutants into the medium, as
well as liability for exceeding permitted emissions and responsibility for cleanup. Laws regarding resource
conservation and management generally focus on a single resource - e.g.,natural resources such
as forests, mineral deposits or animal species, or more intangible resources such as especially scenic areas or
sites of high archeological value - and provide guidelines for and limitations on the conservation, disturbance
and use of those resources. These areas are not mutually exclusive - for example, laws governing water
pollution in lakes and rivers may also conserve the recreational value of such water bodies. Furthermore, many
laws that are not exclusively "environmental" nonetheless include significant environmental components and
integrate environmental policy decisions. Municipal, state and national laws regarding development, land
use and infrastructure are examples.
Environmental law draws from and is influenced by principles of environmentalism,
includingecology, conservation, stewardship, responsibility and sustainability. Pollution control laws generally
Impact review
Municipal planning
Land use
Transportation infrastructure
Energy infrastructure
Environmental justice
Related topics
Administrative law
Bankruptcy law
Energy law
Insurance law
International law
are intended (often with varying degrees of emphasis) to protect and preserve both the natural environment
and human health. Resource conservation and management laws generally balance (again, often with varying
degrees of emphasis) the benefits of preservation and economic exploitation of resources. From an economic
perspective environmental laws may be understood as concerned with the prevention of present and
future externalities, and preservation of common resources from individual exhaustion. The limitations and
expenses that such laws may impose on commerce, and the often unquantifiable (non-monetized) benefit of
environmental protection, have generated and continue to generate significant controversy.
Given the broad scope of environmental law, no fully definitive list of environmental laws is possible. The
following discussion and resources give an indication of the breadth of law that falls within the "environmental"
metric.
Contents
[hide]
1 International
o 1.1 Organizing principles
o 1.2 Sources
1.2.1 Treaties, protocols, conventions, etc.
1.2.2 Customary international law
1.2.3 Judicial decisions
o 1.3 Administration and enforcement
2 United States
o 2.1 Sources
2.1.1 Federal statutes
2.1.2 Federal regulation
2.1.3 Judicial decisions
2.1.4 Common law
o 2.2 Administration
o 2.3 Enforcement
3 Controversy
o 3.1 Necessity
o 3.2 Cost
o 3.3 Effectiveness
4 Education and training
5 See also
6 External links
o 6.1 International
o 6.2 U.S.
o 6.3 Canada
7 References
[edit]International
Pollution does not respect political boundaries, making international law an important aspect of environmental
law. Numerous legally binding international agreements now encompass a wide variety of issue-areas, from
terrestrial, marine and atmospheric pollution through to wildlife and biodiversity protection.
While the bodies that proposed, argued, agreed upon and ultimately adopted existing international agreements
vary according to each agreement, certain conferences - including 1972's United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment, 1983's World Commission on Environment and Development, 1992's United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development and 2002's World Summit on Sustainable Development have
been particularly important.
[edit]Organizing principles
International environmental law's development has included the statement and adoption of a number of
important guiding principles. As with all international law, international environmental law brings up questions
of sovereignty, legal reciprocity ("comity") and even perhaps theGolden Rule. Other guiding principles include
the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, the principle of sustainable development,
environmental procedural rights, common but differentiated responsibilities, intragenerational
and intergenerational equity, "common concern of humankind", and common heritage.
[edit]Sources
[edit]Treaties, protocols, conventions, etc.
International environmental agreements are generally multilateral (or sometimes bilateral) treaties (a.k.a.
convention, agreement, protocol, etc.). The majority of such conventions deal directly with specific
environmental issues. There are also some general treaties with one or two clauses referring to environmental
issues but these are rarer.
[citation needed]
There are about 1000 environmental law treaties in existence today; no
other area of law has generated such a large body of conventions on a specific topic.
[citation needed]

Protocols are subsidiary agreements built from a primary treaty. They exist in many areas of international law
but are especially useful in the environmental field, where they may be used to regularly incorporate recent
scientific knowledge. They also permit countries to reach agreement on a framework that would be contentious
if every detail were to be agreed upon in advance. The most widely known protocol in international
environmental law is the Kyoto Protocol, which followed from the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change.
[edit]Customary international law
Customary international law is an important source of international environmental law. These are the norms
and rules that countries follow as a matter of custom and they are so prevalent that they bind all states in the
world. When a principle becomes customary law is not clear cut and many arguments are put forward by states
not wishing to be bound. Examples of customary international law relevant to the environment include the duty
to warn other states promptly about icons of an environmental nature and environmental damages to which
another state or states may be exposed, and Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration ('good neighbourliness'
or sic utere).
[edit]J udicial decisions
International environmental law also includes the opinions of international courts and tribunals. While there are
few and they have limited authority, the decisions carry much weight with legal commentators and are quite
influential on the development of international environmental law. One of the biggest challenges in international
decisions is to determine an adequate compensation for environmental damages.
[1]

The courts include: the International Court of Justice (ICJ); the international Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
(ITLOS); the European Court of Justice; European Court of Human Rights
[2]
and other regional treaty tribunals.
Arguably the World Trade Organisation's Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) is getting a say on environmental
law also.
Important cases have included:
Trail smelter arbitration, 33 AJIL (1939)
Nuclear weapons testing cases, such as between New Zealand and France before the International Court
of Justice;
Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Dam Case, ICJ Rep (1997)
[edit]Administration and enforcement
Main article: United Nations Environment Programme
[edit]United States
Laws from every stratum of the laws of the United States pertain to environmental issues. The United States
Congress has passed a number of landmark environmental regulatory regimes, but many other federal laws
are equally important, if less comprehensive. Concurrently, the legislatures of the fifty states have passed
innumerable comparable sets of laws.
[3]
These state and federal systems are foliated with layer upon layer of
administrative regulation. Meanwhile, the U.S. judicial system reviews not only the legislative enactments, but
also the administrative decisions of the many agencies dealing with environmental issues. Where the statutes
and regulations end, the common law begins.
[4]

[edit]Sources
[edit]Federal statutes
Main article: List of United States Federal Environmental Statutes
See also: Environmental policy of the United States
[edit]Federal regulation
Consistent with the federal statutes that they administer, U.S. federal agencies promulgate regulations in
the Code of Federal Regulationsthat fill out the broad programs enacted by Congress. Primary among these
is Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, containing the regulations of the Environmental Protection
Agency. Other import CFR sections include Title 10 (energy), Title 18 (Conservation of Power and Water
Resources), Title 21 (Food and Drugs), Title 33 (Navigable Waters), Title 36 (Parks, Forests and Public
Property), Title 43 (Public Lands: Interior) and Title 50 (Wildlife and Fisheries).
[edit]J udicial decisions
The federal and state judiciaries have played an important role in the development of environmental law in the
United States, in many cases resolving significant controversy regarding the application of federal
environmental laws in favor of environmental interests. The decisions of the Supreme Court in cases such as
Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (broadly reading the procedural
requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act), Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill (broadly reading
the Endangered Species Act), and, much more recently, Massachusetts v. EPA (requiring EPA to
reconsider regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act) have had policy impacts far beyond the
facts of the particular case.
See also: List of environmental lawsuits
[edit]Common law
The common law of tort is an important tool for the resolution of environmental disputes that fall beyond the
confines of regulated activity. Prior to the modern proliferation of environmental regulation, the doctrines
of nuisance (public or private), trespass, negligence, and strict liability apportioned harm and assigned liability
for activities that today would be considered pollution and likely governed by regulatory regimes.
[5]
These
doctrines remain relevant, and most recently have been used by plaintiffs seeking to impose liability for the
consequences of global climate change.
[6]

The common law also continues to play a leading role in American water law, in the doctrines of riparian
rights and prior appropriation.
[edit]Administration
In the United States, responsibilities for the administration of environmental laws are divided between
numerous federal and state agencies with varying, overlapping and sometimes conflicting missions. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the most well-known federal agency, with jurisdiction over many of
the country's national air, water and waste and hazardous substance programs.
[7]
Other federal agencies, such
as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service pursue primarily conservation missions,
[8]
while
still others, such as the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, tend to focus more
on beneficial use of natural resources.
[9]

Federal agencies operate within the limits of federal jurisdiction. For example, EPA's jurisdiction under
the Clean Water Act is limited to "waters of the United States". Furthermore in many cases federal laws allow
for more stringent regulation by states, and of transfer of certain federally mandated responsibilities from
federal to state control. U.S. state governments, therefore, administering state law adopted under state police
powers or federal law by delegation, uniformly include environmental agencies.
[10]
The extent to which state
environmental laws are based on or depart from federal law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Thus, while a permit to fill non-federal wetlands might require a permit from a single state agency, larger and
more complex endeavors - for example, the construction of a coal-fired power plant - might require approvals
from numerous federal and state agencies.
See also: List of environmental organizations#Government organizations
[edit]Enforcement
In the United States, violations of environmental laws are generally civil offenses, resulting in monetary
penalties and, perhaps, civil sanctions such as injunction. Many environmental laws also provide for criminal
penalties for egregious violations. Environmental agencies often include separate enforcement offices, with
duties including monitoring permitted activities, performing compliance inspections, issuing citations and
prosecuting wrongdoing (civilly or criminally, depending on the violation). EPA's Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance is one such agency. Others, such as the United States Park Police, carry out more
traditional law enforcement activities.
Adjudicatory proceedings for environmental violations are often handled by the agencies themselves under the
strictures of administrative law. In some cases, appeals are also handled internally (for example, EPA's
Environmental Appeals Board). Generally, final agency determinations may subsequently be appealed to the
appropriate court.
Other environmental law enforcement agencies include:
Fora Verde, a branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces which was established decades ago to protect
against environmental crimes.
[11]

Green Police - an environmental task force in New Jersey.
[12]

Veteran Environmental Patrol of Israel - started fielding uniformed officers in 2001.
[12]

[edit]Controversy
[edit]Necessity
The necessity of directly regulating a particular activity due to the activity's environmental consequences is
often a subject of debate. These debates may be scientific - for example, scientific uncertainty fuels
the ongoing debate over greenhouse gas regulation and is a major factor in the debate over whether to ban
pesticides.
[13]

[edit]Cost
It is very common for regulated industry to argue against environmental regulation on the basis of cost. Indeed,
in the U.S. estimates of the environmental regulation's total costs reach 2% of GDP,
[14]
and any new regulation
will arguably contribute in some way to that burden. Difficulties arise, however, in performing cost-benefit
analysis. The value of a healthy ecosystem is not easily quantified, nor the value of clean air, species diversity,
etc. Furthermore environmental issues may gain an ethical or moral dimension that would discount cost.
[edit]Effectiveness
Environmental interests will often criticize environmental regulation as inadequately protective of the
environment. Furthermore, strong environmental laws do not guarantee strong enforcement. Nonetheless, the
cost benefit analysis for society at large between having laws that protect citizens from toxic or dangerous living
and work conditions such as those that existed in the early industrial 1800's or not clearly comes down on the
side of regulation.
[edit]Education and training
Environmental law courses are offered as elective courses in the second and third years of JD study at many
American law schools. Curricula vary: an introductory course might focus on the "big five" federal statutes -
NEPA, CAA, CWA, CERCLA and RCRA (or FIFRA) - and may be offered in conjunction with a natural
resources law course. Smaller seminars may be offered on more focused topics. Some U.S. law schools also
offer an LLM or JSD specialization in environmental law. Additionally, several law schools host legal clinics that
focus on environmental law, providing students with an opportunity to learn about environmental law in the
context of real world disputes involving actual clients.
[15]
U.S. News & World Report has consistently
ranked Vermont Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, and Pace University School of Law as the top three
Environmental Law programs in the United States, with Lewis & Clark and Vermont frequently trading the top
spot.
[16]

Many law schools host student-published law journals. The environmental law reviews
at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, NYU and Lewis & Clark Law School are regularly the most-cited such
publications.
[17]

The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law
[18]
is a network of some 60 law schools worldwide that specialise in
the research and teaching of environmental law.
International environmental lawyers often receive specialized training in the form of an LL.M. degree after
having a first law degree often in another country from where they got their first law degree.
[edit]See also
Pollution haven theory
Globalization
RELP Renewable Energy Law and Policy Review

Pollution haven theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on
Green economics
Concepts[show]
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Dynamics[show]
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v d e
Pollution haven theory posits that foreign investors from industrial countries are attracted to
weakenvironmental regulations in developing countries. This principle says that a company would want to
locate in a country with the lowest environmental standards.
[edit]Analysis
The location choice model was derived and estimated using data on a sample of EJV project, Chinese levies
on water pollution and Chinese industrial pollution intensity

Globalization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Globalisation)

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not
remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2011)


The European Central Bank in Frankfurt,Germany, is the central bank for theEurozone.
Globalization or (Globalisation) refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic
activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services,
through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas. Globalization
accompanied and allegedly contributed to economic growth in developed and developing countries through
increased specialization and the principle ofcomparative advantage.
[1][2]
The term can also refer to the
transnational circulation of ideas, languages, and popular culture.
Opponents alleged that globalization's benefits have been overstated and its costs underestimated. Among
other points, they argued that it decreased inter-cultural contact while increasing the possibility of international
and intra-national conflict.
[3]


Renewable energy commercialization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from RELP Renewable Energy Law and Policy Review)


The wind, Sun, and biomass are three renewable energy sources


Global New Investments in Renewable Energy
[1]



80 MW Ohotnikovo Solar Park in Ukraine.


Fenton Wind Farm at sunrise
Part of a series on
Green economics
Concepts[show]
Policies[show]
Dynamics[show]
Carbon related[show]
v

d

e
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations ofrenewable
energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature
and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity,geothermal power and heat. Second-
generation technologies are market-ready and are being deployed at the present time; they include solar
heating, photovoltaics, wind power, solar thermal power stations, and modern forms of bioenergy. Third-
generation technologies require continuedR&D efforts in order to make large contributions on a global scale
and include advanced biomass gasification, biorefinery technologies, hot-dry-rock geothermal power,
and ocean energy.
[2]